Earticle

초록

영어

This study offers a Lacanian psychoanalytic reading of Jane Austen’s Emma, interpreting the heroine’s obsessive matchmaking as a symptom of obsessional neurosis and her resistance to marriage as a defense mechanism that preserves her exceptional status and emotional bond with her father. Rather than following a typical Oedipal structure, Emma’s psyche aligns with Lacan’s “Obsessional Quartet,” where death or the figure of the dead serves as her proxy in pursuing desire, keeping her distanced from her own. Her matchmaking becomes a neurotic strategy to maintain symbolic control while avoiding the risks of entering the marriage economy herself. Emma neither rejects (as seen in psychosis) nor denies (as in perversion) the authority of the Order but represses it, sustaining the illusion of autonomy within its confines. Set in 19th-century England’s patriarchal society, Emma's social role is defined by marriage. Her anxiety over potential social decline leads her to invest in matchmaking fantasies rather than face her own desires. Her concern for reputation —evident in her reactions to social events like the Box Hill incident—reveals her vulnerability. Though she appears fulfilled by the novel’s end, Lacanian theory suggests the gap between the Symbolic and the Real leaves a lingering lack. Thus, Emma remains caught in an ongoing cycle of repression, fantasy, and unresolved desire.

목차

Ⅰ. 서론
Ⅱ. 에마가 겪는 억제와 금지
Ⅲ. 강등(degrading)에 대한 불안
Ⅳ. 에마의 죄책감과 대타자의 목소리
Ⅴ. 결론
인용문헌
Abstract

키워드

저자

• 안진흥 [ Jin-hung Ahn | 경북대학교 초빙교수 ]

참고문헌

발행기관

간행물

표지보기 관심저널 등록

• 간행물명

  영어영문학21 [English21]

• 간기

  계간

• pISSN

  1738-4052

• 수록기간

  1967~2025

• 등재여부

  KCI 등재

• 십진분류

  KDC 840 DDC 820